Teen Titans: Roses and Violets

By Eoraptor

Rated T

AN: Set sometime in early part of the final season of Cartoon network's Teen Titans. Teen Titans cartoon, "The New Teen Titans," and all related characters copyright DC Comics, Warner Brothers, and Cartoon Network. Full disclosure top of part 1.

It's been a few years, so a reminder, this is based around Cartoon Networks "Teen Titans" 2003-2006. Not so much around "Teen Titans Go" the current cartoon which did not even exist when I started this, and definitely not around the current-run comic book of New 52.

-Teen Titans-

NeverAgain

"So you two honestly walk around just like this?" Rose was sitting, or half reclining as it were, in a chair at the Pizza Pit. She used the slice in her hand to indicate Cyborg and Beastboy.

"And what's wrong with walking around like this? It's how I look, it's who I am." Cyborg arched his living brow at the near-albino. She seemed to know just how to push his buttons and he was not appreciating it.

"It's not exactly inconspicuous, now is it love?"

"Come on! I'm green, he's half metal. You really think some little domino mask is gonna disguise us?" Beastboy made goggles with his fingers and then rolled his eyes. "Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly, and superheroes gotta look super."

"But you did used to wear a mask, didn't you?" Rose arched the brow over her good eye challengingly, and then turned to Cyborg, "And you had a holographic ring."

"Now just how did you know that?" the big guy growled slowly, leaning forward slightly.

"I have my sources. Well, actually they're daddy's sources, but that info was not very hard to come by. Like I said… you don't make a point of hiding things, do you?" She took a bite of her pizza as she grinned at them.

"And what about you?" BB probed. The allusion to Slade raised his hackles, and he didn't even have hackles in his human shape. "You're supposed to be hiding out, but you're walking around all white haired and eye patched. It's not dress-like-a-pirate day, ya know."

The white haired girl smirked, and then giggled. It was a haughty, amused sound, but it went on for an uncomfortably long moment before she gave her head a toss, her sleek pony tail fluttering as she giggled to a stop. "Touché."

Beastboy and Cyborg exchanged a glance and then looked at Rose again. The larger boy coughed into his hand and continued after a moment, "So, Rose… You grew up in London, but pardon my asking why you look Asian."

Beastboy blinked, and stared hard at Slade's daughter, then gasped. "Dude! You're right, she's totally miko!"

Both Rose and Cyborg gave the green changeling an incredulous look before shaking their heads and resuming the conversation around him, "You're saying that people of Asian descent only come from Asia? London is a rather modern metropolis, and the United States does not have a monopoly on melting pots you know."

When her challenge of his preconceptions was meant only with a smirk, she sighed and giggled again before continuing, "But you're correct, my mother was a member of a tribal kingdom of Preăh Réachéa Nachâk Kâmpŭchéa, what today is called Cambodia. My father rescued her from some… unpleasantness, and took her to London."

"Figured as much. Your face looks a bit to native to be from Europe." Cyborg commented with a proud smirk before taking a big bite of his pizza. "So, Slade rescued your mother? What was his real reason? He doesn't do anything without a plan and an ulterior motive."

"I can only assume he wished to avail himself of my mother's royal connections during the reign of the Khmer Rouge and the ensuing counter insurgency." Rose began simply, "However, he was apparently impressed by my mother's skills in survival, tactics, and improvisation, and they became lovers for a time. As you have no doubt surmised, I was the result; though my father did not know it for some years."

She watched the boys for their reactions and then sighed theatrically, looking heavenward, "Oh do close your mouths. That is such a profoundly stupid expression."

Both Beastboy and Cyborg closed their mouths and shook their heads. Then Beastboy began chewing his lower lip, ticking off fingers as he counted to himself. Suddenly he looked up in shock, "Wait a minute… that was like, thirty years ago. Dude, just how old is Slade?"

Smirking, Rose supplied her answer around a sip of her Popsi, "Let us simply say that longevity is one of my father's strengths."

The two Titans shared an uneasy look as they took in this new information. Their unspoken consideration was interrupted by Rose seeking information of her own.

"You seem to know my father well enough. Is it true that he died last year, and then came back from the dead? I've heard rumors, of course… including what DeFarge told me when he… but even for Titans, that seems fairly fantastic."

When she received no response, she looked up from her drink and sighed with exasperation, "Oh please, even you two cannot be that dense. Is it true that Deathstroke the Terminator was killed, raised up as a demon acolyte, and then reborn while helping the Titans?"

"… dude… Who is Deathstroke the Terminator?"

-Teen Titans-

"The…" the boy wonder began uncertainly as he looked at the Raven in blue. Then he turned, and looked at the Raven in pink, who was still rocking back and forth like a caffeinated six year old, "…inside of your head?"

"Ohhh, Friend Raven! What a pretty cloak! And your eyes, they have changed color!" Starfire was fondling the material of Pink Raven's cloak as she greeted the duplicate.

"Starfire…" the Blue Raven seemed a bit disconcerted at Star's proximity to the Pink one, but after a moment, dropped her hand in the face of the big grin's on both girls' faces

Turning back to Robin, she stepped closer, lowering the hood of her cloak and revealing her face. "The inside of my head is not entirely accurate. This is… for lack of any better description, a dimension which manifests my thoughts and my… emotions."

"Dimension Smimension!" Pink giggled, and played with Star's hair as she, in turn, played with Pink Raven's cloak, "it's her braaaaaaaaaains!"

"Shut up, Pinky." The darkly colored Raven bit out irritably. Storming the few steps inside of the Candyland world, she forcibly removed Pink's hands from Starfire, and then pushed the Tamaranian girl back several steps.

"My name is Pinky Pie!" The Pink Raven, apparently not at all bothered by the rough treatment, chirped by way of introduction, "I represent all of Raven's happiness and humor and hopes!"

"I thought you'd be smaller?" Robin quipped with a smirk, earning a dirty look from the Blue Raven. Chuckling and raising his hands in a supplicating gesture, he smiled, "It's nice to meet you Pinky Pie. Is this… your part of Raven's mind?"

"It's not my…" the Blue Raven huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. "After a moment of centering herself at the discomfort Pinky always brought with her, she began again, "It's not my mind, it's a dimension which represents it."

"How does that work friend Raven?" Star openly boggled as she looked from the Pink one to the Blue one.

"It is!" She chirped and giggled, bouncing on the balls of her feet, "Here is all happiness, and cheer, and good feelings, and friends!"

"It seems to have changed since I was last here…" the Blue Raven frowned, stroking her chin as she cast her eyes about the green fields and rainbow skies, "It seems… bigger?"

"Oh! Yes!" Pinky giggled and nodded, clutching her hands in front of her in excitement, "My lands have gotten much much bigger in the last few weeks! I even have friends now!"

The Pink Raven lowered her hood, revealing a riotous mass of magenta colored curls on her head, and eyes and a Chakram jewel which matched the color of her cloak. She stuck two fingers in her mouth and gave a shrill whistle, causing the others to wince at the volume.

The boy wonder blinked as he looked around, because some chalk drawings on the path he hadn't noticed before, began to move. A bright green stick figure with spikey hair was the first to lift itself off of the pavement, and make a show of stretching before jogging over to meet Pinky Pie. Next, a figure made up of a blue inverted triangle, with a megaphone-shaped cone for a hand came to life…

"Booyah!" it cheered, before it too went to join the Pink incarnation.

Next, a stick figure with masses and masses, and masses again, of red hair, floated up off the pavement, and then sort of fluttered over to the growing assembly.

"Oh! Friend Raven! They are so cute!" Star giggled as she clasped hands with her apparent chalk self and danced around.

"Well, those are certainly new…" the Blue Raven questioned in a monotone. "Pinky? Did you make these?"

Pinky Pie giggled and nodded enthusiastically, sitting back astride a green stick figure pony, which apparently had a moment ago been the stick figure Beast Boy. "I did! I love to draw my friends!"

"This is all… very confusing," Robin turned to look at the Blue Raven. He noticed that unlike the Pink one, her Chakram gem was still its original red. "So… you're the real Raven? The one who brought us in here?"

Raven, who had a little blush in her cheeks at the way Pinky and Star were now cavorting with the stick figures and dancing Ring Around the Rosey, coughed into her hand and tried to regain control of herself, "That is correct. Pinky, in her simple way, is merely one aspect of my personality. Which is why she does not have a true third eye on her forehead."

Robin looked, and then nodded, grasping the distinction and filing it away for future reference. Turning back to the real Raven, he chuckled at the increasing fluster she was showing in the presence of her pink self, "Take it easy Raven. It seems harmless enough."

Looking around in a bit of confusion, the boy wonder frowned, "Wait a minute, if those are her ideas of your friends, then where am I?"

Pinky, who was now giggling as the stick figure Starfire flew her around in loop-de-loops, blinked and dropped to her feet. "I…. um… I haven't figured out how to draw you yet."

Pointing, Pinky drew their attention to a patch of sidewalk covered in scribbles. Robin, Raven, and Star stepped closer, and looked at all the aborted attempts to capture the Boy Wonder.

And there were several of them.

The first few were fairly simple, basically a stick-figure in red, with a mask and spikey hair. The next one, though, looked like the blue Cyborg drawing, big and with Pinky's impression of muscles. The one after that was short, really short, and had little cartoon drawings of a snake, a teddy bear, a bat, and a monkey around it. There were more drawings, all half-finished, and all X'ed out in childish frustration it seemed. One of them was even all in black with long hair.

"Those are all friend Robin!" Starfire giggled and clapped her hands in recognition. She got down on her hands and knees and began pointing to each, "Here is his secret identity, and this one is his prodigious inner strength! Oooh! And here are all the forms of combat he has mastered! And this one is all his detecting skills… Oh! And this one is Night Wing!"

"I just can't seem to draw him right," Pinky huffed and toed the sidewalk with her boot.

"Interesting," the Boy Wonder scratched his chin as he considered the drawings that had not been finished. Turning, he smiled at the real Raven, "Is this really what you think about each of us?"

"I wouldn't know," She huffed irritably, cheeks now rosier than ever before she drew her hood up over her head to cover them, "Pinky is not in my mind, she is a manifestation of it. Not a direct thought."

"Oh! I know! I can show you my playground!" Pinky grabbed Robin's arm, and began tugging him towards a new area of Candyland.

"I don't think so Pinky." Raven grumbled. She gave a wave of her hands, and the chalk figures of Beastboy, Cyborg, and Starfire who had been playing leapfrog with the real Starfire, evaporated in so much dust. "We have to be moving along."

"Awwwe!" the Pink Raven whined, "Now I have to draw them all again!"

However she quickly smiled and dropped to her hands and knees, producing the key colors of chalk to begin again. "Please don't go! I'll finish them up real quick and we can all play some more!"

For just a moment, Raven paused, looking on her pink self with a faint smile, "I'll come back soon, I promise."

Star and Robin blinked at the note of… something… in Raven's voice. And then it was gone, and she was her dour self once more. "But if we remain here forever, you will never see the rest of Nevermore."

"It's boooooring," Pinky singsonged innocently as she continued to redraw her friends.

Robin paused, considering the curly headed pink incarnation a moment. The new drawings seemed to be a bit more complex than the previous stick figures. But before he could bring it up, they stepped through an arch and Candyland disappeared.

-Teen Titans-

The conversation between Cyborg, Beastboy, and Ravager had achieved a sort of unspoken equilibrium. The boys were getting more information about Slade "Deathstroke the Terminator" Wilson than they had in the last three years, and the steely blonde seemed to be amused by whatever information she was wheedling out of her chaperones.

"I'd heard Daddy mention that the birdy boy had trained with the Eastern Master… but I didn't think it was true... I thought she'd kicked years ago." The brit shook her head, gesturing with a pizza crust.

"And what would you know about the Eastern Master?" Cyborg inclined his head. They didn't even know much about the mysterious master, other than that that person was nigh-mythical and Robin had sought them out over a two week sojourn.

"Well I know she trained my mother and my grandmother before her and was a grand master even then." Ravager supplied, biting off the pizza bone. "Oh, and I know she was female… which apparently puts me a step up on you two."

"Yeah… but did you know… that Robin's costumes are one size fits all?!" Beastboy produced, from seemingly nowhere, a signature black domino mask and flicked it over his eyes, "Eh? Eh?"

"Wha… BB?" Cyborg groaned and face-palmed at the purloined mask, "Here, gimme that!"

"No whay! I stole these fair and square!" the green boy leaned away, holding his arm out of reach.

"And you know what he will do to you for that, right?" Cy kept reaching around the smaller boy, extending his arm with a whirr to grab the mask.

"Yeah, congratulate me on a job well done for having it!"Beastboy jeered and morphed into an orangutan, extending his arm to keep pace with Cyborg's.

"No, he'll skin you alive for touchin' his stuff! Especially his mask! You know he thinks it makes him cool!?" Cy proceeded to extend his fingers beyond the reach of his extensible arm "Give it!"

"No way dude! I'm going to put it up on iBay, see how much it goes for!" Beastboy turned onto a squid, determined to continue to outreach his bionic buddy.

"And which of you gentlemen will be paying the check with that sale?" came a question from their server.

"Let the british chick get it," Cyborg waved his free hand at their guest, "She can afford nice outfits after all.

"I'm sorry, who?"

The boys suddenly stopped their wrestling and looked across the table. They found an empty seat, not even a plate to indicate anyone had been seated there.

"Oh crud," the big man intoned, sitting back and retracting his appendages with a whirr, "Robin is gonna kill us."

"Gonna kill who?" the changeling donned the purloined mask. He then promptly turned into a flying squirrel and dove for the sky.

"You better be lookin' for her!" Cyborg challenged before grumbling and then realizing the server was still waiting. "Oh… yeah… grrrrr… this day just gets better and better!"

AN: Wow… look at this?! A chapter on a story!

So… where to begin? To be honest… the nu52 reboot really killed a lot of my joy for DC. Particularly the things they did to Ravager and Raven. This chapter as sat half-finished on my hard drive for at least three years. It was, in fact, almost lost by a hard drive crash, but a friend of mine had a saved copy. As to the next few steps? Who can say… I will say, yes, because of the shared voice actresses… there is a blatant My Little Pony call-out here… though I doubt there will be too many more. None of raven's other head-personae lend themselves to ponification. I do hope to try to maintain better contact with this story though. I can't be the only person out there who misses the previous Titans cartoon and comic books.